G. Cockshott - On Saying Nothing New.pdf

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On Saying Nothing New
Author(s): Gerald Cockshott
Source:
The Musical Times,
Vol. 98, No. 1369 (Mar., 1957), pp. 131-132
Published by:
Musical Times Publications Ltd.
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http://www.jstor.org/stable/936529
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March 1957
THE MUSICAL
TIMES
131
Debussy (Le Martyre de St. Sebastien), Grieg
(Peer Gynt), Elgar (Grania and Diarmid and
Starlight
Express),Coleridge-Taylor
(Herod,Faust,
Othello),Delius (Hassan), Mackenzie (The Little
Minister), Vaughan Williams (The Wasps),
Goossens (East of Suez), Britten(Johnson
over
Jordan,The Ascent of F6 and This Way to the
Tomb),to mentiononly a few.
However, incidentalmusic does still persistin
small doses. The Old Vic boasts a small
of
ensemble,usuallyconsisting wind instruments,
has
harp and percussion. Stratford-on-Avon a
small and highlyefficient
theatreorchestra,
and
therecent
at
production the Royal Court Theatre,
Sloane Square, of Bert Brecht'sThe Good Woman
of Setzuan had music speciallycomposed by Paul
Dessau.
So the flag still flies and hope persists that
incidentalmusic may survive in the theatre to
for
provideemployment our composersand musi-
cians, and enhance the pleasure of a visit to the
play.
On SayingNothing
New
By GERALD COCKSHOTT
of my favouritebits of music criticism
occurs in The Musical World of 8 March
1838. 'It may be a graphicexample of the
transcendental
horrors Germaninsanity, it is
of
but
not music', says thecritic-of a passage in Weber's
Overtureto Euryanthe.In 1899 a criticremarked
that' M. Delius's musicis bizarre
and cacophonous
to a degree almost unapproached'; and about
writer musical
on
twenty-five
yearsago an eminent
who is happily still with us, headed an
subjects,
article in the Radio Times: 'Is Bart6k mad-or
are we?'
No modernmusiccritic goingto be caughtout
is
like that; but change,as we know only too well,
does not necessarily
mean progress.An attitude
of
blindness towards anythingobviously
pontifical
out of the rutis seldom to be met within critical
writing
nowadays; but this is not to say that the
critic has altogethermended his manners and
reformed ways. He has, rather,reversedhis
his
criteria. Where his predecessorwas inclinedto
favour the traditionaland castigate the new, he
tends to favourwhat he considersto be new and
castigatewhat he is pleased to call old-fashioned.
It is an understandable
but
reaction, it is not one
that is necessarily
of by the pioneering
approved
composer himself. 'The dutyof the composer',
says Dr. Vaughan Williams, 'is to find the mot
if
juste. It does not matter thiswordhas been said
a thousandtimesbeforeas long as it is the right
thingto say at thatmoment. If it is notthe right
thingto say, howeverunheardof it may be, it is
of no artistic
value. Music whichis unoriginal
is
not simplybecause it has been said before,
but
so,
because the composerhas not takenthe troubleto
make surethatthiswas theright
to
thing say at the
moment.'* Elsewhere
Dr. Vaughan Williams
right
has made the same point even more bluntly:'If
anothercomposerhas said the same thingbefore,
so much the worse forthe othercomposer '.t
The most obvious faultof some of the critics
in
the past-it is easy to be wise so long afterthe
event-was thattheyweremoreindulgent
towards
lifeless
exercises a stylewithwhichthe majority
in
ONE
on other
musical
subjects. O.U.P., 1953.
A3
t The Making of Music.
O.U.P., 1955.
* Some thoughts on Beethoven's Choral Symphony, with writings
of listenerswere familiarthan towards works of
imaginationwhose idiom was strange to them.
ones in particu-
Today, some critics-the younger
lar-so far fromexhibiting discernment
a
denied
to their
showthemselves
more
predecessors,
merely
towardslifelessexercisesin a stylewith
indulgent
whichthe majority listeners unfamiliar
of
are
than
towardsworksof imagination
whose idiom is not
to
of
strange them. It is unfamiliarity idiom, not
newnessof content,
thatseems to determine
their
reaction. ConstantLambert,writing the nine-
in
teen-thirties,
gives a delightful
example of this
' Some ten yearsago an immature
failing.
quartet
ofWalton's,written thethenfashionable
in
revolu-
mannerof CentralEurope, earnedforhim
tionary
the titleof" International
Pioneer". In 1933 his
mature but regrettably
consonant Belshazzar's
Feast was dismissed, particularlyby the older
as
and
critics, " routinier conventional, unworthy
",
of its place in so selectlyrevolutionary festival.
a
The rest of the works were still in the stylethat
Waltonhimself
had used tenyearsbefore, it so
but
thatWalton's development
had led him
happened
away fromofficialrevolt to personal revolt. It
would be a tenablehypothesis
thatWalton himself
was the real revolutionary
and the others the
conservatives.'* (The criticswho turnedup their
noses at Troilusand Cressidamightre-readLam-
bert with profit.)
Everycomposeris influenced somebody: the
by
that
positiontodayis thattheinfluences are under-
stood and welcomedby CoventGarden or Festival
Hall audiences are anathema to the young critic,
and theconverse applies. If a newcomposition
too
by an Englishmanowes somethingto Vaughan
Williams, then it is likely to be condemned as
' conservative language'; whereasif it is clearly
in
influencedby Mahler or Schoenbergit will be
new'. The young
praised as 'saying something
criticwho talks of ' newness' is oftennot really
concerned
withnewness all: he is merely
at
showing
a preference one tradition
for
rather
thananother;
and it has become the fashionin some circlesto
favourthe one that is foreignto the majorityof
concert-goers.
Elgar once remarkedof critics,'They are the
*
Music Ho! A Study of Music in Decline.
Faber & Faber, 1934.
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132
THE MUSICAL
TIMES
March 1957
victims of their own temperaments.
.
. The
.
music theycondemnis . . the music that does
not appeal to their particular kind of nervous
'.*
extentof
system While thisis trueto a certain
all of us, it seems particularly
apposite to the
devotees of what one mightterm the Viennese
neurotics. Still,grantedthat we give the pioneer
his due (even if he is a pioneerin a waste land), I
confessI cannot see whythe droves of camp fol-
lowersshould be praisedsimplyforfollowing
one
pioneer ratherthan another. The man who imi-
tates Schoenberg no more originalthan the one
is
who imitates
VaughanWilliams;nor is neo-modal
than a
harmonyany more or less old-fashioned
harmonic style that derives from nineteenth-
Germanchromaticism.
century
In any case, is 'newness '-even genuinenew-
ness-a valid criterion?If it is, thena beautifully
finished
compositionby Gordon Jacob in a tradi-
tional stylemust be consideredipsofacto inferior
to a piece of musiqueconcrete;
and while we may
the Epilogue to Vaughan Williams's Sixth
praise
we
of
Symphony must rejectthe slow movement
theEighth. Beautyof sound will not enterintoit.
Some criticstoday seem to be so haunted by the
solecismsof theirpredecessorsthat the adjective
to
' ugly' is rarely be foundin their
notices:in fact,
one seldom gains much impressionfrom their
as
writings to whata worksoundslike. Of course,
we may read betweenthe lines, and if a work is
we
for
praisedprimarily itstextures mayguessthat
the composer's melodic and harmonicinvention
do not amountto much; but thecriticwillnot say
is
so, as ifto him beautyof melodyand harmony
comparatively
unimportant.Yet the worksof the
great mastersthat are no longer thoughtworth
because theircrafts-
are
performing not neglected
is faulty but because their melodic
manship
is
invention below the composers'best.
I
in
Personally, have some confidence thejudg-
mentof the ordinary
educatedlistener,
and it is a
to
be
greatmistake assumethathe mustinevitably
wrong. He has caughtup withVaughan Williams
and witha good deal of Bartokand Hindemith;
he
willlistenwithpleasureto Walton,Copland, Ibert
and Prokofiev;and the fact that he has not yet
caught up with Schoenberg'sorchestral
pieces of
1909 does notseemto me to reflect his discredit.
to
When beforein the history music has a com-
of
not
position seemed wellnighunintelligible, only
to the ordinaryconcert-going
public but to the
halfa century
of
musicians,
majority trained
nearly
after was written,
it
whilelaterworksby the com-
and juniors have become
poser's contemporaries
that
plain sailing? Not everything is obscurewhen
it is firstperformed
will 'please one day'; and
what aestheticobjection is there to music that
affords
the average listenersome of the pleasure
thathe derivesfrom classics? The choice does
the
as is sometimes
not,
implied,lie betweenthe two
the
extremes good music thatinterests fewand
of
bad music that appeals to the many. There is a
greatdeal being composed thatis both good and
blessedwithdiscrimi-
to
comprehensible a listener
nation but little specialized knowledge; and it is
* Gerald Cumberland: Set Down in Malice:
niscences. Grant Richards. 1919.
a Book of Remi-
thismusic,rather
than the esoteric,thatI feelthe
critic
shouldendeavourto approachwithsympathy
and understanding.By all means let him censure
bad workmanship,
tritenessand sentimentality.
What I object to is the tendency some quarters
in
to belittle composerwho, without
the
compromis-
succeedsin giving
ing his artistic
integrity,
pleasure
to a comparatively
wide audience, and to imply
thathe would do better like Mr. X, he juggled
if,
witha fewtone rows. Pope's maximmay stillbe
borne in mind:
A perfect
Judgewillread each workof Wit
Withthe same spirit
thatits authorwrit.
and charmmean moreto mostlisteners
Vitality
(and mean morein thelong run)thancrab canons
-and rightly for academic devices are of no
so,
artistic
value in themselves,
least of all whenthey
to
are used in atonal compositions. It is difficult
'
should
see whythe 'revolutionary twelve-noters
with which theyuse
be praised for the strictness
devices of 'con-
the time-honoured
contrapuntal
servative' composersor whythereis supposed to
be any virtuein atonal canons, fuguesand passa-
caglias. A composer cannot even applaud their
is
since he knows that no ingenuity
ingenuity,
that do not fita
requiredto writecounterpoints
scheme. It is no secret
basicallydiatonicharmonic
of course, that twelve-note
among composers,
to
music is as easy to writeas it is difficult listen
some of the criticsmay be fooled
to; and though
most of the time, it is not so easy to fool the
concert-going
public.
whether
A century
henceit will be small matter
a compositionthat has stood the test of time-
which means the test of the approval of a com-
large body of listeners-was hailed as
paratively
when it first
new or condemnedas old-fashioned
and it is not impossible that our
appeared;
descendantswill find some of the musical judg-
ments of our day as wide of the mark as those
of earlieryears-and as amusing.
Blake Bicentenary
Competition
offers prizeof£25forthe
a
Festival
The Aldeburgh
of
bestnewsetting oneofBlake'spoemsbya composer
will
The
the
under age ofthirty. winning or songs
song
at
be performed this year's festival(14-22 June).
to
be
should sent theFestival
Entries
Office,
Aldeburgh,
15
before March.
Suffolk,
The last of threeconcerts
by
sponsored the Mac-
on
New Music Groupwillbe given 29 March
naghten
4
RoomoftheArts
intheDrawing
Council, St.James's
London,S.W., at 7.30. EilunedDavies is the
Square,
the
and
pianist Louis Halseywillconduct Elizabethan
David Wynne's
will
Singers.The programme include
Dakin's Suitefor
SecondPiano Sonata,Charles
piano,
'Libera
Three Part-Songs Finzi and Joubert's
by
Plebem'.
will
Festival takeplace
Haslemere
The thirty-second
tickets
when
on 13-20
Booking
openson4 March,
July.
the
andallinformation behadfrom Hon.Secretary,
may
Dolmetsch Foundation,Mrs. King, Spindlewood,
6
After Maytickets
maybe had from
Surrey.
Tilford,
Hall Box Office.
theHaslemere
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JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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